Any member who is already a Minecraft player may add to this tutorial at any time. Just use the REPLY button and post the answers to the above "how to" list if they haven't already been answered. If you have other topics for basic instruction, just add them as you go. Thanks, everyone!

- Go to minecraft.net- In the upper right corner, click on Register.- On the next page, fill in your email address and password under Create a new Mojang Account. Click the Create account button.- Under Account options > For this account, choose the Minecraft name that you would like to use. For example, this is what everyone will see when you log into a multi-player game.- Under Payment details, click on the Redeem code tab. Enter the PIN from your prepaid card and click the Redeem button. If you have not purchased a prepaid card, proceed with the Choose payment method tab instead.- The Minecraft.exe can be downloaded here.

EDITED BY LINDA ON 06/12/16, due to changes in the Minecraft client and installer.- After you have created your Mojang account and redeemed your code, you need to download the game client at: [url=https://minecraft.net/en/download/[/url]That page tells you exactly what to do to download and install the game. Basically, the new Minecraft download just has to be double-clicked to install the game. It actually installs in Program Files, like other software, now, and a shortcut will be put on your desktop. You can move the shortcut anywhere you like, or just leave it on the desktop. Also, you do not need to download or even update Java any longer, as the new client actually finds, installs, and runs the correct Java for you.

- Minecraft is not installed in the traditional way that games are usually installed on your computer. It is actually run from the EXE file and uses Java through your web browser. Therefore, it can be downloaded to anywhere on your computer that you choose. For example, I have mine in my Downloads folder, with a shortcut to it on my desktop.- Double-click on the Minecraft.exe to open it. After you do this for the first time, your Minecraft installation folder can be found by doing a Windows search for %appdata%. Here you will find the .minecraft folder, which has your saves, screenshots, etc. I like to make a shortcut to this folder on my desktop since I refer to it quite often.

*A note on Java...

- Depending on what version your web browser is (32-bit or 64-bit), you might need to install a newer version of Java for the game to run with good performance. Please visit this [url=http://www.java.com/en/download/faq/java_win64bit.xml]FAQ[/url] for more information.

- Minecraft is started using a launcher. When you first open it up, you will need to log in. In the window that pops up, enter your email address or username and password. Click the Log In button.- In the lower left of the launcher window, you will see a section for profiles. One of the great things about Minecraft is that you can have multiple profiles. For example, you can have a profile that uses mods and one that doesn't or you can have a profile that uses a different version of the game. I like to create a main profile that matches my username. Go to New Profile. Type in the name you would like to call your profile (ex. psychedelicsim). Leave all of the default settings, then choose Save Profile. Your new profile should now be available in the drop down menu.- On the lower right side, you will see Welcome, [your username]. The first time you run the game, you should see Ready to download & play Minecraft 1.7.4 or whatever is the most recent version. Click the Play button and it will automatically download the latest version.

Creating a profile that uses a different version of the game...

The great thing about Minecraft is that we get some awesome updates all for FREE. Like most games, there are bugs, but Mojang is very good about getting fixes out fairly quickly. Another great thing is that we can have multiple profiles. For example, say you don't want to use the latest version because it is too unstable or a map that you're using requires an older version of the game to run, you can create an alternate profile by doing the following.

- Go to New Profile. Type in a different profile name from your main one. Down at the bottom beside Use version, there is a drop down menu. From there, choose the version of the game you would like to use. Click Save Profile.- Go to the profile drop down menu and choose the new profile that you just created. Click the Play button and the game will use the version you specified when you created the profile.

Snapshots

When Mojang is working on releasing a huge patch, they make available what are called "snapshots." These allow players to test the changes that will be available with the new patch. If you are interested in trying out the snapshots, it's best to create a new profile that will be used just to test out the new features.

- Go to New Profile. Type in a new profile name (ex. Snapshots). Under Version Selection, tick the Enable experimental development versions ("snapshots") box. In the drop down menu beside Use version, select the snapshot version you would like to use, then click Save Profile.- Go to the profile drop down menu and choose the new profile that you just created. Click the Play button and the game will use the snapshot version you specified when you created the profile.

*NOTE: Don't forget to switch back to your main profile from the drop down menu before launching the game if you would like to use the latest version.

...how to set up your player controls (including turning off "snooper settings")

- Launch the game and go to Options > Controls

If you have never played a first person game, the controls might take a little while to get used to. Most of the defaults are easy to use, but you might want to change them to your liking. For example, instead of using the letter "E" to open up your inventory, you would like to change it to the letter "I" instead.

- Click on the button beside Inventory. Between the arrows you will see that the current letter has changed to the color yellow. Press the "I" key. It will then be changed to your preferred letter.

The same process can be used for changing the other controls that are available in the game.

Changing Snooper Settings

- Go to Options > Snooper Settings

This option is available so Mojang can get information about how your computer runs Minecraft so they can work on improving the game so everyone has the best gaming experience possible. If you do not want to send this information to Mojang, you can opt out by clicking on the Allow Snooper: ON button. That will then change it to Allow Snooper: OFF. Click the Done button to apply the change.

Minecraft has 4 different levels of game play difficulty. The higher the level of difficulty, the more neutral and hostile mobs (monsters) that will be available, especially at nighttime. For more information on mobs, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

To change the game difficulty, go to Options. Click on the Difficulty button in the top right to change the level.

- Peaceful: No hostile mobs at all, except for passive ones like cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, horses, ocelots, etc. This is a good level to start at when you are first getting familiar with the game. It's also a good level when you are working on building, mining or just need a break from the mobs.- Easy: This level gives you a few hostile mobs that are out and about, some during the day but most of them are out at night. You also take on the least amount of damage. Most of us play at this level.- Normal: More mobs and more damage.- Hard: Lots more mobs and lots more damage.

For more information on difficulty levels, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

Minecraft runs on a variety of systems ranging from slower to higher end, Windows XP to Windows 8.1 and Mac computers. You can customize the video settings to work the best with your computer and operating system.

- Go to Options > Video Settings. Click on the buttons that you would like to customize.

Render Distance and Max Framerate are good options to change if you have a slower computer. Clouds can also be turned off to improve performance. It's mainly a matter of trial and error to get the settings that work the best for your computer.

...how to set up a single-player world in Minecraft (including individual game options)

Now that you have the overall game options customized to your liking, you are now ready to start your first world.

- Launch the game and go to Singleplayer. In the bottom right corner, select Create New World. In the World Name box, type in a name for your world. Under that, you will select the game mode. In Minecraft, there are 4 different game modes -- Survival, Hardcore, Adventure and Creative. The default Survival should already be selected. This is the one that most of us use.

- Click on More World Options. Leave the seed blank (more on that later). Click on the Allow Cheats: OFF button. This will change it to Allow Cheats: ON. Cheats allow you to change the game mode, teleport, etc. Teleporting is a comfort thing for a lot of us because if you get lost in a cave or while out roaming (Minecraft worlds are huge!), it allows you to easily get home or to another safe place. (More on teleporting and using coordinates later). Leave all of the rest of the options with their default settings.

INSERTED NOTE (Linda): If you want to have a chest with a few starting items and 3-4 torches (for lighting), you can also click on the Bonus Chest: OFF button, which will then turn to Bonus Chest: ON.

Click the Done button, then Create New World.

When you first arrive in your new world, you will land on terrain that is randomly generated. It could be in the middle of a forest, on an open plains area or yes, even in the middle of a vast ocean. This is called your spawn point. In the tutorial world that I have started, I have landed in a plains area right on the edge of a roofed forest. You can get this information by pressing the F3 key.

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You can also change your individual world settings. To do this, hit the Esc key and choose Options.

As you can see, when you first start a new world in Minecraft, you have nothing on your hot bar or in your inventory.

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The hearts on the left side show how much health you have. The food on the right shows how hungry you are. In Peaceful mode, you do not need to worry about eating. When the game is on a higher difficulty level, you will need to make sure you have a good food supply. (more on that below)

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NOTE (Linda) If you chose to have a Bonus Chest before you created the game, you should look around you when you have appeared at your spawn point. Somewhere close by, there should be a chest with several torches set around it. To open the chest, right-click on it. There will be several wooden tools a little bit of wood, and a couple of food items, usually. This is why it's a "bonus" chest.

You can transfer the items from the chest to your inventory by either clicking on them and then clicking on a slot in your inventory, or by holding down the left-shift key and left-clicking on them to transfer them instantly to the first available spot in your inventory bar. Then you can move them around in your inventory as you like (you'll get your own established pattern for that as you play for a while).

To pick up the torches to keep them in your inventory for later use, left-click on each one, and they will "drop" as Carrie explains below.

The first thing you're going to want to do is to find wood. This will allow you to create a crafting table for creating more complex objects. Go to the nearest tree and start punching away by pressing the left mouse button.

As you break each piece of wood, it will land on the ground or pop directly into your inventory, depending on how close you are to it when it falls. To get anything into your inventory, just walk close enough to it and it will automatically be picked up. As you can see, I have 7 pieces of wood so far.

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A huge part of the game play in Minecraft is crafting weapons, tools, materials, etc. For more information on crafting, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

Before you collect enough wood to make a crafting table, if you open your inventory window, you will see that you have 4 crafting slots. This is good to use when you are first starting out for crafting things like wood planks, sticks and torches. Since I have collected some wood, I will be turning them into wood planks so I can make a crafting table.

I will be using wood planks to make a crafting table. To do this, select a stack of wood planks and right click to place one in each of the squares.

We have now created a crafting table.

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Left click on the crafting table to take it out of the box to the right of the arrow, then place it in your first hot bar slot.

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From left to right, your hot bar is numbered from 1 to 9. For example, if I would like to select the crafting table in slot #1 so I can place it, I would press the 1 key on my keyboard. As you can see, I am now holding it in my hand.

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To place the crafting table, right click on a piece of land in front of you.

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You can now right click on the crafting table to open up the crafting window. As you can see, we have more boxes for making weapons, tools, etc.

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In Minecraft, one of the main things (and most fun things!) you do is mine for cobblestone, sandstone, etc. and also ores, such as iron, gold and diamonds. To do this, we need to make tools. The first thing we're going to make is a pickaxe. This is the tool that is used the most for mining. Since we already have wood, we will use that to create our first pickaxe.

Open up your crafting table. Place two pieces of wood planks, one on top of the other. As you can see, it makes 4 sticks.

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Grab the sticks you just made and place them into your inventory. We will now use them to create our pickaxe, along with 3 wood planks.

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When crafting, you will notice that the tools, weapons, etc. that you create are basically the same shapes in the crafting table as they are once you craft them. Below are some examples. For more information on crafting, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

Sword (used for fighting mobs or killing animals)

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Shovel (used for breaking gravel and sand)

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Axe (used for breaking wooden items)

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*Note: All of your tools and weapons can be upgraded as you find other materials, such as stone (cobble), iron, gold and diamonds.

Since we have some tools, we can now go out and start exploring the area around us. The first thing we are going to look for is coal to make some torches. Torches are basically your best friend in this game. They protect you from mobs and also help you find your way around, especially at night.

Here you can see that I have found some good resources for coal. Caves are usually the best places to find coal and other ores, but coal and iron can also be found on the sides of mountains.

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When collecting coal, you also get experience (XP) points. The green bar below your health and hunger tells you how many XP levels you have. XP levels are used for enchanting items (more on that later).

Now that we have gotten some coal, we can craft some torches. The good thing about making torches is that it can be done without a crafting table.

While mining for coal, I also collected some cobblestone, which has allowed me to upgrade my pickaxe to a stone pickaxe (using the same pattern I used before to create the wooden pickaxe, but with cobblestone instead of wood planks). Each upgrade allows you to break blocks more efficiently.

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I also found some iron ore, which is a huge find! Iron is used for making a variety of weapons, tools, armor, etc. and is very durable.

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The next thing we need to do is to find food to keep us full and to help us heal when the mobs are on. A good resource is cows, because they give you both food and leather (used for making low level armor).

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Pigs are also a good resource for food. Yummy pork chops!

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Since I have collected a few resources, it's now time to head back to our crafting area. The first thing we want to do is to create a furnace, which allows us to smelt ores and cook food. They are crafted using cobblestone blocks.

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Right click on the furnace to open it, then place a few pieces of coal in the bottom box. These are used to cook and smelt. Now, place all of the iron ore blocks in the top box. As you can see to the right of the arrow, it produces iron ingots. These are what is used to craft weapons, tools, armor, etc.

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I have also placed the raw pork chops that I got from the pig into the furnace to cook. Note, you also get experience points when using the furnace to smelt and cook.

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The next thing we want to craft is a chest. When you are out exploring, you collect a lot of resources. It is best to store your extra supplies in chests. I have created a single chest below using wood planks.

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You can now place any extra supplies that you do not want to carry with you into the chest.

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For more space, you can make 2 chests and place them next to each other, which creates a double chest.

Since we found some iron, we can use it to upgrade our pickaxe and to craft a pair of shears, which are used for shearing sheep for wool, getting rid of spider webs in caves and obtaining leaf blocks, grass, vines, etc.

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The cows I killed earlier also gave me some leather. Leather has a variety of uses. It can be used for armor and for crafting books. Since we do not have enough iron to make iron armor, we can make leather armor that will give us some protection from mobs.

I have enough leather to make a leather tunic and some leather pants. I will also eventually need to make a helmet and boots.

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To use your new armor, open up your inventory. To the left of your picture, you can see 4 slots. Place the tunic in the second slot down and the pants in the third slot down. You now have some protection from those mobs!

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As you can see, right above our health bar, it now shows that we have some armor. The more durable your armor, the more armor bars will fill in.

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It looks like we're all set up with the basics for now. It's time to get to exploring more of the area and collecting resources!

The worlds in Minecraft are huge and contain many amazing things. It is easy to get lost if you don't pay attention to your surroundings. All of us veteran players have had many times where we have been having so much fun finding new areas, resources, etc. that we totally lose track of where we are. A good way to keep track of where you are in the world is to use coordinates. To find the coordinates of your current location, press F3.

The following will pop up in the upper left of your screen.

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When using coordinates, you want to pay attention to the numbers beside X, Y and Z.

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The X coordinate is your east and west location. The Y coordinate shows how high or low you are (for example, the level you are on above or below ground). The Z coordinate is your north and south location. For more information on coordinates, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

Before you go out exploring, it is always a good idea to write down your starting coordinates. That way you can use them to get back to your original starting spot. You can also use coordinates to get out of caves. For example, when you first find a cave, write down the coordinates to the entrance of the cave. You can then use them to make your way back out of the cave once you are finished exploring.

In our multiplayer game, we will give each other the coordinates to different areas we have found so that other people can join us and we can explore them together.

Teleporting

Teleporting is good to use if you have wandered out a far distance and don't want to walk all the way back to your starting location. It's also good to use if someone in multiplayer has found a new area far away. It allows you to get there without having to walk a great distance. Teleporting is also used as a comfort for many of us. If you get lost in a cave and are having a hard time finding your way out using the coordinates, you can teleport instead.

To use the teleport option, open up the chat window by pressing "T". I will be using the coordinates of my crafting area. They are typed in like below:

/tp -68 64 243

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As you can see, the numbers match the X, Y and Z coordinates above. You only need to type in the numbers before the decimal point. After you have typed in the numbers, press Enter and you will be teleported to the location of your choice.

*Note: Be careful to include the minus (-) sign if your X and Z coordinates have them. Leaving out a minus sign can accidentally land you in lava or suffocating in a wall!

Minecraft worlds are full of different things that can kill your character. These can be anything from falling from a high place, losing your battle with a mob (monster) or getting stuck in lava. When you die, you lose all of your XP levels and everything you were carrying in your inventory.

We'll start with the most evil of all....LAVA!

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Lava can be found above ground, in the form of lava falls coming out of mountains or walls and deep below ground. The best way to get rid of lava is to use a water bucket (for flat lakes of lava) or to place a block into the hole if you are able to find the source of the lava flow. If you fall into lava, it catches you on fire and you will start to see your health (hearts) go down one by one. Sometimes you can get out, but most times it's the cause of death for most of us. Dying in lava does not allow you to recover your items because they get burned up.

There is a plus side to finding lava lakes and getting rid of it using a water bucket. You get Obsidian, which is blast resistant from Creepers and also allows you to create items and Nether Portals. Obsidian can only be obtained by using a diamond pickaxe.

For more information on water buckets, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

When you lose a mob battle or fall from a high place, there is a good chance that you can get all of your items back (but not levels). The game allows you 5 real time minutes to get back to where you died to pick everything up. A lot of times, most of it will still be there if you arrive back in time.

Respawning

When you first land in your world, you are located at what is called your spawn point. When you die, you respawn to this point. However, it is possible to change your respawn point. You can do this by creating a bed and placing it in the area that you have made your home. You must sleep in it for one full night to set your new spawn point. If you break down your bed and move it to a new location, you will need to sleep in it again.

To make a bed, you will need 3 pieces of wool (obtained from sheep) and 3 wood planks. They are placed in the crafting table as shown below:

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To sleep in your bed, right click on it. This can only be done at night. When you wake up, it will be daytime.

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Day and night cycles each last 10 real time minutes.

NOTES (Linda): There is another way to get the wool you need for a bed. You'd have to have string, which can be obtained from spider webs--usually found in abandoned mineshafts--more about those later-- or from killing spiders. Of course, you'd have to already have monsters turned on, to get string from a spider. To make one piece of wool you can either use your inventory crafting (2x2) area, or use the crafting table. Either way, a piece of wool is made by putting one piece of string in each square of a 2x2 crafting block (any 2x2 block inside the 3x3 crafting table area works). Since you need three blocks of wool for a bed, you need 12 pieces of string.

Also, if you are using wool from sheep, you may have gathered several different colors of wool (white, black, gray, and light gray, and an occasional pink sheep are natural colors--other colors may be dyed--more about that later). You can use any combination of wool colors when you make your bed. I believe the wood planks can be different types, as well. The resulting beds are always red, however, and the wood parts always look the same.

When you sleep in your bed, the amount of time spent for the night is condensed. You don't actually have to remain in the bed for a full 10 minutes. It's only a few seconds after you hop in, that you hop back out (automatically), and suddenly there's daylight again.

To survive the mobs and to have a place to call home, you need to build yourself a house or shelter when you first get started. Eventually, after you have gotten more familiar with the world around you, you can build more advanced structures. As we have all gained more knowledge of the game, we've been able to create some amazing areas!

For the purpose of this tutorial, I will be building a small shelter out of cobblestone that I will use to keep my bed, chests, crafting table and furnace.

You can build your shelter out of a variety of materials, such as cobblestone, sandstone, bricks, wood, etc., each of them having different blast resistances. The more durable, the more likely your shelter will survive an accidental Creeper explosion. For more information on blast resistance, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

The first thing we need to do is to go out and mine some cobblestone. When breaking stone blocks, they fall as cobblestone. For a decent sized shelter, we will need at least three stacks of 64 cobblestone each. We will also be collecting sand. Sand is used to make glass.

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While I was mining for cobblestone in one of the small areas where I had found some coal before, I uncovered a nice, deep cave. When you're mining, one of the signs that you are coming close to a cave system is hearing bats.

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I decided to go through some of the cave (it's very hard to stop once you've started going through caves!), I was able to replenish my coal and iron resources.

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Tip: When going through caves, be careful of gravel. Some gravel will give way if you stand on it, which could result in you falling from too high a place or into lava. Also, when breaking blocks, be careful not to stand under gravel or sand. When it falls, it will land on your head and take away some of your health or possibly kill you if too much falls at one time.

Tip: It is very easy to get lost in caves. A good tool to help you find your way back is to place torches along the right side as you go along inside. When you are ready to leave, look for torches on the left side to find your way out. It is also a good idea to block off areas you have already explored with cobblestone. That way you won't keep going to the same areas.

While I was out gathering resources, I also collected enough sand to make some windows for my shelter. Sand can be found on the banks of rivers, lakes and also in deserts. It is best collected using a shovel.

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To make glass, open your furnace and place the sand in the top box.

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As you can see, we collected enough coal and iron to make more torches, to upgrade our tools and weapons and to also make some armor. We also have enough cobblestone and glass to start building our shelter.

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I have also crafted a bucket, which I will fill with water to use for getting rid of lava. Buckets are one of the essentials that you should carry with you at all times, especially when exploring caves and mine shafts. To fill a bucket with water, select it and right click on standing (not flowing) water in a river or lake.

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I have chosen a flat area not far from the crafting station that I've been using as my base.

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A good size for a starting shelter is 7 x 7.

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I like to make my buildings at least 4 blocks high. To get through spaces, your character needs 2 blocks high. If you build your shelter 4 blocks high, that gives you plenty of head room while inside the building and doesn't make it as claustrophobic.

NOTE (Linda): There is a benefit to making your living space just 2 squares high (between floor and ceiling), though. There is a mob called an Enderman, who is 3 squares tall. Endermen can teleport into any open space--including shelters, if they have 3 squares open, vertically. While Endermen are generally neutral, if you look at them in the eyes (if you place your crosshairs over their head space), they can become angry with you, and try to get to you to kill you. This isn't something you need to worry about when your game is on the Peaceful setting, of course.

Tip: When building high up, hold down the Shift key as you walk along the edges. This will allow you to lean out to place blocks without falling off.

Here is how my shelter looks so far. I have knocked out blocks and placed glass for windows. I have also made a hole where the door will go. It's a good idea to place the door one block high from the ground. This makes it harder for mobs to get to it. Some mobs, such as zombies will pound on your door trying to get in and this can get quite annoying!

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To make a door, place 6 wood planks in your crafting table as shown below.

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The area for a door is 2 blocks high. To place the door, right click on the bottom cobblestone block. Once it is placed, to open the door, right-click on it. Do the same thing to close it. Don't forget to always close your door to keep the mobs out!

NOTE (Linda): There's another reason to put the door up one square from the ground level (or you can dig a small, one-square-deep, pit in front of the door, if you want the door to be at ground level). Zombies will still come to beat on your door if they have seen you go inside or have otherwise become aware of your presence. They cannot break your door down, though, when it is one block above where the Zombie is standing, because the door must be beaten in its top square, to be broken. On the Easy game setting, they can never break your door down, anyway, but if you ever play on the harder settings, they can, unless the door is raised in this manner.

As you can see, we have a nice temporary shelter to protect us from the mobs, sleep in and to store all of our supplies. I have also decorated it with flowers I found around the area and lit up around the shelter with torches. This helps with keeping a lot of mobs from spawning around your shelter.

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Now it's time to move in! You can break down your crafting table by using your axe. Grab the coal out of your furnace and break that down by using your pickaxe. Move all of the items from your chest into your inventory, then break that down using your axe. Once inside the shelter, place everything back down as you did before and move all of your extra supplies back into the chest from your inventory.

To survive in Minecraft, you need food and lots of it! Another way (besides killing animals) to get food is to plant a garden. There you can grow wheat, carrots and potatoes, which are the 3 main staples. You can also grow pumpkins and melons. When you first start out, the easiest thing to obtain and grow is wheat, which can be used for baking bread.

Note: Carrots and potatoes are dropped by zombies. You can also get them from gardens found in villages. Pumpkins and melons can be found in different biomes. You can also find pumpkin and melon seeds in abandoned mine shafts, temples or dungeons. For more information on farming, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

Finding seeds for growing wheat is a very simple process. Find an area with grass and punch out each patch of grass by left-clicking. Seeds will drop, but not from every patch of grass.

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We now have some seeds to start our garden.

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Before we get started, we will need some tools - a gardening hoe and a bucket of water. Since we already have a water bucket, we will just need to make the gardening hoe.

Open your crafting table. Place cobblestone and sticks as shown below.

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Now we're ready to start our garden. Make sure you have seeds, the gardening hoe and a bucket of water in your inventory.

I have chosen to make my garden in the area beside my shelter. As in real life, water is essential in making your garden grow. In Minecraft, the water needs to be close enough where the seeds are planted to hydrate the soil in order for them to grow properly.

To begin, we need to make holes for water. Dig out 2 holes and fill them with water using your bucket. If you are using one bucket, you will need to find a water source and fill it up again.

Tip: So you don't have to keep running back and forth to a lake or river to fill your water bucket, it's a good idea to create an unlimited water source close to where you are working. To do this, dig a 2 x 2 hole. Fill two of the corners opposite from each other with a bucket full of water. The water must be standing (not flowing) in order for it to be an unlimited water source.

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I like to place one block of water with 2 blocks wide of hoed land around each one like shown below. To hoe the land, use your garden hoe and right-click on each block. As you can see from the darker areas that have appeared, some of the soil is already getting hydrated.

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Now that we have a well hydrated area of soil for our garden, we can now plant the seeds that we have collected. Select them and right-click on a block of soil to plant them. Be careful not to walk too much on the seeds that you have planted. As you can see, our wheat is already starting to grow in some spots!

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Each type of plant grows in different stages. To speed along plant growth, you can use bone meal, which is made from bones obtained from skeletons or in chests that are found in abandoned mine shafts, temples or dungeons. For more information on using bone meal, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

While I'm waiting for the wheat to grow, I'm going to build a fence around my garden to help keep the mobs and animals out. To do this, we will need to make fencing.

Open your crafting table and place sticks as shown below. Each one makes 2 fence pieces.

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We will also need to make a gate so we can get into the fenced in area to tend to our garden. Open your crafting table and place wood planks and sticks as shown below.

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Select your fence pieces and begin placing by right-clicking on the blocks around your garden. It's a good idea to leave one block between your fence and garden so you have an area to walk around so you don't walk on the plants.

Place the gate the same way you placed the fence pieces, then place torches on the fence posts. Now we have a nice fenced in area so our garden hopefully will not be bothered by mobs or animals!

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Some of the wheat that we planted is now ready to be harvested. Right-click on the wheat to break it down. It will drop both seeds and wheat.

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We have gotten enough wheat to make 2 pieces of bread. You would think we would be using the furnace to bake bread, but we will be using the crafting table instead. Place them as shown below.

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For more information on food recipes, please visit the Minecraft Wiki.

As you find different seeds, potatoes and carrots (these are planted whole), you can plant them just as you did the wheat seeds and have a garden with a variety of foods.

Another good thing about Minecraft is that you can play the game with other people close by (such as family members or friends in your house) that are using your same internet connection and their own Minecraft account. All of this can be done without joining a multiplayer server.

To do this, one person will need to start a singleplayer game. Open the launcher and click Play. Go to Singleplayer and start a new world. Once the world has loaded, press Esc to bring up the menu. Choose Open to LAN.

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Select your desired settings, then click the Start LAN World button in the lower left corner.

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In the chat window in the bottom left corner, a port number will appear. Copy this down so you can give it to everyone who wants to join your game.

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On the other person's computer, have them go to Multiplayer > Direct Connect. In the Server Address box, they will need to type in your local IP address and the port number.

For example: 100.100.0.100:56949

To find the local IP address on your computer using Windows 7, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. To find the same thing in Windows 8, go to Search and type in "command". Once you have opened up the command prompt window, type in "ipconfig" and press enter. Copy down the IP Address that appears.

Press the Join Server button. This should now connect you to the singleplayer LAN game on the first computer.

Note: If the person who started the LAN game exits for any reason, everyone will be disconnected.

NOTE (Linda): If you are making a LAN game in your own household, where the other computers to be used are on the same wireless system, or if other players not in your household (perhaps in your neighborhood) are able to open to your wireless connection, the LAN game can be opened by other players by simply going into MULTIPLAYER when the game is opened. Any open wireless LAN games available to that player will show up in the list of servers to be clicked to enter. Click on that LAN listing, then JOIN, and voila! You're in!